Notes / Commercial Description:
This West Coast-style Pale Ale is brewed with 80% English barley malts and 20% rye malt. It boasts a massive floral aroma of resinous hops, contributing notes of lemons, peaches and pine needles and is anchored by the sweet malty flavors of toffee and freshly baked pumpernickel bread.

Reviews by climax:

This one presents a murky gold color. The eggshell white head is pretty modest but a film holds atop fairly well. Some leopard spots of lace remain as I drink.

Right off the bat while it's still well-chilled, I don't get much rye in the nose at all. The hop aromas, on the contrary, are quite sharp. Bold floral and citrus notes dominate. A bit of bready malt, diacetyl, and butterscotch strive for balance, but lack the intensity to do so.

The spicy and slightly sour flavor hints at the rye a bit more, especially as it warms. The hop kick still overpowers the malt with bold grapefruit and herbal flavors.

Carbonation is very crisp, quite sharp as it hits the tongue. The medium body has a nice chewy character. The finish is on the dry side making it pretty easy to take down.

I can't find any blurb on the bottle or website to catch what the intention is here. IBU's must be pretty high, because the fleeting sweetness is shoved aside by an assertive floral and resiny citrus character.

More User Reviews:

4.25/5 rDev +13.3%

Nose: rye spice, spicy malt, pine and citrus.
Bright gold under a 2: rocky head that slowly dissipates to a film. Lacy
Palate: spice, rye, light malts, piney grapefruit rind bitterness on the finish.
Medium full body, medium carbonation. Dry and refreshing.
While definitely not a roggenbier, it has a nice malt emphasis.

Appearance: An impressive pour, with a foamy meringue of a head that squats atop the cloudy goldenstraw colored liquid

Smell: Gently spicy with a hint of lemon

Taste: Opens biscuity, with a citrusy mix of lemon and white grapefruit developing; in the middle, the peppery and spicy tones from the rye take the beer in another direction; a hint of sweetness underneath

Mouthfeel: Medium body with moderate carbonation

Overall: I found myself pleasantly surprised by this beer; the rye was handled deftly and added a nice angle to the other tones

Appearance- Slightly hazy golden color with two fingers worth of foamy head. The heads lingers for a few minutes then slowly fades to a half inch cap and leaves a fair amount of lacing.

Smell- Grapefruit hop aroma with a hint of spiciness.

Taste- Moderate grapefruit and grassy hop bitterness with some rye spiciness and a hint of caramel malt sweetness. It has just enough of a hop presence for flavor but not so much as to be overpowering. The slight spiciness and sweetness add a nice twist.

Mouthfeel- Medium bodied with an average amount of carbonation. Crisp with a dry finish.

Overall- A good thirst quenching beer. This is one of the better rye beers that I've tried and worth having again.

Poured a hazed peach-like color with a clingy one finger white head that left one full ring of lace as it settled into a frothy mass.Aromas have a real grapefruit hoppiness to it mixed with a juicy,gummy, fruitiness.Flavors are a mix of tartness from the rye and a hefty dose of resinous,citric hop,there is a juicy fruitiness more malt imparted, underneath the tartness.Its a refresher with a nice mix of citric hop,rye tartness,a fruity malt,nice job.

A shiny, golden color as it hits the glass, with some light orange tints bordering the edges. Nice clarity throughout the beer, save for a minor chill-like haze in the dense center. A big bubbled, off-white head forms slowly as the carbonation bubbled trudge from the bottom of the glass to the top. The aroma gives off a kind of "sweaty" vibe on the first take. Going back again, I'm smelling a lot of "green" and vegetal hops; light, wet, mildly floral. Some bitter grapefruit peel makes its way in with a drying finish that I'm assuming is from the rye, though there isn't much actual rye aroma being picked up. Just an assortment of garden-basket hops and citrus peels.

The taste contains a little bit of alcohol warmth, despite being only 6% ABV - not necessarily a bad thing, however. It's backed with a white pepper-like, earthy spice - lots and lots of bready and spicy, dry rye. For being so present on the palate, I'm surprised it didn't show more in the nose. The big hop character is back, this time, a bit more leafy and ashy, even with some mild pine needle flavor to them. A dry bitterness strikes about halfway through and carries into the aftertaste. Very light on the citrus flavors overall, maybe a bit of orange zest and grapefruit pith - things tend to stay a bit bitter. The pale malts add a light touch of sweetness, but that's about all they do. Any flavors they contribute seem to get washed out by the rye. The finish is dry and spicy with lots of rye and some mild, earthy hops. Thin-medium body with medium carbonation; slick and wet mouth feel.

Decent rye beer, though nothing to write home about. The most upsetting thing about it was the aroma. Just didn't do much for me; didn't really care for the hop profile it was giving off, and the rye was surprisingly muzzled. Overall, not a bad choice, but there are many others in this department I'd reach for before this one.

Mouthfeel: medium bodied, medium carbonation, sweet start with a bitter middle that gets less bitter on the finish

Drinkability: This is a decent beer, but I do not get as much of a rye taste here as I do in other rye beers. It is ok and if you like bitter beers, pick this up. However I have had better in the style.

12oz bottle pulled from fridge, allowed to warm a bit. bottled on 07/07/10 stamped on bottle. poured into a standard pint.

pours out a super cloudy golden yellowish color with a one finger of fluffy white head. great sticky lace, and great retention. small bits of sediment. looks like a darker hefe.

mostly oily resinous hops in the aroma. citrus and tropical fruits with some light piney notes. balanced by a nice bready malt. a hint of rye somewhere in there as well.

an explosion of bright resinous oily hops. mostly grapefruit citrus and tropical fruits. a nice bready malt tries to balance, but the hops rule here. just a light rye like spiciness in the background, the spiciness hits more after the sip. lots of lingering hop bitterness.

Appears a clouded copper golden hue with a bright white off head. Fine scattered lacing forms nicely. Aroma is pungent citrus and pale malts, a touch of fruitiness pretty solid smell. Flavor has a touch of sourness but it works the pale ale brings bitter pelletized hops coating the palate. Spicy peppery rye flavor with citrus hops blasting through it kind of works. Mouthfeel is all about the bitterness and hops interplaying with the malted rye and barley. Carbonation is tight bubbled, medium bodied slightly slick with hop oils. Drinkability overall is pretty solid a bit unbalanced in the hop direction but I'm actually enjoying a bit of rough unrefined hops.

Smells spicy and floral, rather as expected. But the flavor clearly reveals wild yeast. Unintentional I believe. So much for unpasteurized in this case. The farmhouse effects actually fit somewhat well with the spicy rye/hop profile and don't completely ruin the beer, but it certainly doesn't taste like it should.

D - This, their 12th anniversary brew, is light, refreshing, and fairly complex. I would certainly recommend this to anyone who was looking for a great summertime brew. The only problem I can find is that this is not summer.

A- This beer has a crystal clear apricot hued body with a sticky snow white head that leaves sheets of register marks that last for the full beer. There is a snow glow of tiny bubbles swirling around the beer before rising to the top.

S- This beer has a herbal skunky hops, that are a pleasant skunk almost cat pee aroma. This is followed by a woody pine resin hop finish which is softer and has a note of spice like pepper to it. Overall it is a bit soft especially compared to the taste.

T- The tangy citrus note to the big green hops has more of a funk dark green flavor to it with a slight sweetness of pale malt underneath. There is a fruity almost bubble gum flavor to the malt that has a yeast quality to it. The spicy rye note comes through as the beer warms and compliments the hops and the malt with a little snap.

M- This beer has a full mouthfeel with a creamy texture and no alcohol heat.

D- This beer has some good big hops with some nice depth and a bit of unique complexity around the hops. It is easy to drink and pretty tasty.